It has officially been just over ten days since I have arrived in London. What a whirlwind it has been! There is so much of the city I cannot wait to continue exploring– it feels as though the list of places to see, foods to taste, and experiences to try is never-ending.
My new neighborhood is Kensal, just north of the iconic Notting Hill. As a homestay student, my experience looks a little bit different from many of my peers here. I live with a lovely women and her mother, along with a few guests who are also staying at her home. So far, I am grateful to have chosen the homestay route. By living with real Londoners, I am able to witness and live out the authentic London experience. Like many other boroughs in London, my neighborhood does not feel like a big city, but rather a small town with its own dynamic and way of life within the big city. The village ways here is also apparent in the pub culture. Unlike my previous understanding of pubs, they aren’t bars, they just happen to sell alcohol. Pub is short for “public house”– the idea is that you have your private house where you live, and the pub serves as the community’s public house or gathering place. Each community or neighborhood has a local pub, where families, individuals, and strangers gather, and everyone knows everyone. Going to the local pub is a cultural experience you should not miss– just don’t forget pub etiquette!
Speaking of the authentic London experience, part of living and working here means long commutes on the Tube or the bus. Every day, it takes me 38 minutes to commute from my homestay to my internship, and 46 minutes to the CEA CAPA center for class. What’s more, I consider myself lucky, as the average commute time in London is 60 minutes. Even better, my commute to work is on a single line, meaning I don’t have to worry about any transfers. Accounting for so much time to travel is definitely different from what I experience at Pitt, where my furthest commute to class is no more than a 20-minute walk. However, the bus system in London is very similar to the Port Authority bus system I already know well. It’s just much more exciting to ride on a red double decker bus to go to my class.
In just over a week, it feels as though so much has happened already. This evening, I attended a networking event and gave a pitch in front of several dozen people for the company I am interning in, Better Design. Better Design is a tech company who creates apps for businesses, specifically start-ups. They handle all the backend, while streamlining all the operations for the business owner. As a marketing major, this may not seem like a good pairing, but it’s been a wonderful experience to step into a role that previously did not exist. Being a small company, Better Design has never had an official marketing position, which allows me the creative freedom to lead a marketing strategy in many different ways. The team of other interns and I decided that tech events, particularly those geared towards startups, would make the perfect opportunity to find new clients for Better Design. It’s been a truly rewarding experience to work with my boss, Chris, one of the founders of the company, his team, and the other interns on such a great service. Despite only knowing us for a week, it was incredibly encouraging for Chris to trust us enough to represent his company at an event.
With this pitch, one of the many skills we learned this week involved knowing how to concisely yet precisely present a product or service to a potential client. It was essential that we truly understood what Better Design had to offer and witnessed it in action so that we could best represent the company with our presentation. It combined both the hard skill of making a strong slide deck with the soft skill of professional presentation and networking with strangers. I am thrilled to see what the future holds for the rest of my internship.